Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-03-17
KIN 6
Solomon S Mines.
CHAPTER ".
AN ELEPHANT HUNT,

the Lukanga and Kalukwe rivers, journey
of more than thousand miles from Durham,
the last three hundred or so of which, Ow-
ing to the frequent presence of the dreadful
''tsetse" fly. whose bite is fatal to all ami
mails except donkeys and men, we had to
make OH foot.
We left Durham at the end of January,
and it was in the second week of May that
we eamped near Sitanda's Kraal. Our adj
ventures on the way were many and various,
but as they were of the sort which befall
every African hunter, l shall not-with one
exception, to be presently detailed-set them
down here lest should render this history
too wearlSome.
AT hyatt, the outlying trading station in
the Matabele country, of which Lobengula
"a great scOundreD is king, we, with many
regrets, parted from our comfortable wagon.
Only twelve oxen remained to us out of the
beautiful span OF twenty which L had
bought at Durham. One we had lost from
the bite of a cobra, three had persisted from
poverty and the want of water, one had been
lost, and the other three had died from eat
ing the poisonous herb called tulip" Five
more sickened from this cause, but we
managed to cure them with doses of an in
fusion made by boiling down the tulip
leaves. LII administered i'll time this is a
very effective antidote. The wagon and
oxen were left i'll the immediate charge of
Coco and Tom, the driver and leader both
OF them trustworthy boys, requesting a
worthy Scotch missionary who lived in this
wild place to keep an eye to It, Then, &C
companied by Umbopa, Khiva, VentVogel,
and half dozen bearers whom we hired on
the spot, we started off on foot upon our
wild quest / remember we were all a little
silent on the occasion of that departure, and
think that each of us was wondering if we
should ever see that wagon again; for my
part, | never expected to. For while we
tramped on in silence, till Umbopa, who was
marching in 'front.' broke into Zulu chant
about how some brave men, tired of life and
the tameness of things, started off into a
great wilderness to find new things or die:
and how, 10 and behold? when they had got
far into the wilderness they found it was
not wilderness at all, but beautiful place
full of young wives and fat cattle, of game
to hunt and enemies to kill
Then we all laughed and took it for a good
omen. He was a cheerful savage was Um-
bopa, in dignified sort of a way, when he
had not got one of his fits of brooding, and
had wonderful knacl of keeping ones
spirits up. We ALL got very fond of him.
And now for the one adventure | was go
ing to treat myself to, for L do dearly love
hunting yarn.
About fOrtnights march from hyatt, we
came across a peculiarly beautiful bit of
fairly watered, wooded country. The kloOfs
in the hills were covered with dense bush,
''idOrO" bush as the natives call it, and in
some places, with the ''wacht-een-beche'
(waita-littlel thorn, and there were great
quantities of the beautiful ''machabelF'
trees, laden with refreshing, yellow fruit
with enormous stones This tree is the
elephants favorite food and there were not
wanting signs that the great brutes were
about, for not only was their spoor frequent,
buem many places the trees were broken
down and even uprooted. The elephant is
destructive feeder.
One evening, after days march, we came
to spot of peculiar loneliness. AT the foot
of bush-clad hill was dry river-bed, in
which, however, were to be found pools of
crystal water all trodden round with the
footprints of game Facing the hill was a
park-like plain, where grew clumps of fiat
topped mimoSa, varied with occasional
glossy-leaved machabells, and all round was
the great sea of painless, silent buSh
AS we emerged into this river-bed path we
suddenly started troop of tall giratfes, who
galloped, or rather sailed off, with their
strange gait their tails screwed up over
their backs and their hoOfS rafting like cas-
tanetS. They were about three hundred
yards from us, and therefore practically out
of shot; but Good, who was walking ahead,
and had an express loaded with solid bail
could not resist, but upped gun and let drive
at the last, young cow. BY some eXtraor
binary chance the ball struck it full on the
back of the neck, SCATTERING the spinal col
umn and that giraffe went rolling head over
heels just like a rabbit. l never saw more
curious thing.
Course it!' said Good-for I am sorry to
say he had habit of using strong language
when eXcited-cOntracted, no doubt, in the
course of his nautical career; ''curSeit! I've
killed him."
lou, Bouwan," calculated the Kafirs;
sou! QUIZ
They called Good 'Bougwan' (glasseye)
because of his eyeglass.
ooh, .Bougwanp" re-echoed Sir Henry
and |, and from that day Goods reputation
as q marvellous shot was established, at any
rate among the Kafrs. Really he was bad
one, but whenever he missed, we overlooked
it for the sake of that giraffe.
Having sent some of the ''boys'' to cut off
the best of the giraffe meat we went to work
10 Dullu IL one OIL Tile pools
about hundred yards to the right of it.
This l. done by cutting a quantity of thorn
bushes and laying them in the shape of
circular hedge. Then the space mclosed is
smoothed, and dry tambouki grass, if OBJ
tainable is made into bed in the center,
and a fire or fires lighted.
By the time the "scherm' was finished,
the moon was coming up, and our dinner of
giraffe steaks and roasted marrow-bones was
ready. How we enjoyed those marrow-bones,
though it was rather a job to crack them! L
know no greater luxury than giraffe marrow,
unless it is elephants heart, and we had that
ON the morrow. We ate our simple meal,
pauSing at times to thank Good for his Won
derful shot, by the light of the full moon,
and then we began to smoke and yarn, and
curious picture we must have made squat
ted there around the fire. l. with my short
grizZied hair sticking up straight, and Sir
Henry with his yellow locks. which were
getting rather long. were rather a contrast,
especially as l am thin, and short, and dark,
weighing only nine stone and a half, and
Sir Henry is tall, and broad, and fair, and
WEIGHS tiTtaaD Rut r1pTbanS tho most